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A friend wrote:<br><br>
<font color="#0000FF">In my not always so humble opinion though,
"hope" is not the greatest of bio-engineering
strategies.<br><br>
</font>And I replied:<br><br>
Both 'hope' and 'faith' carry strong subtexts of 'death' and 'failure'.
Prior to the scientific age, the associated social and religious
mechanisms did promote slightly better chances of survival by these
means. Religious conversion and mystical insight (which I have
experienced) both operate by making the real world irrelevant and an
imaginary 'higher' world the ultimate reality. It has to be ultimate to
be effective, and the main effect is to delete the fear response, freeing
one for a wider field of action, often contrary to one's social
programming. "God said so" is a panacea for ignoring social
constraints. Evolution only conserves survivability, so we are saddled
with these Stone Age mechanisms, which do work in their limited
way.<br>
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<div>==================================</div>
<div>= Hara Ra (aka Gregory Yob) =</div>
<div>=
harara@sbcglobal.net =</div>
<div>= Alcor North Cryomanagement =</div>
<div>= Alcor Advisor to
Board =</div>
<div>= 831 429
8637
=</div>
<div>==================================</div>
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